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War in Syria

August 15: as its defector PM says, the Assad regime as of mid-August only "controls" 30 per cent of the territory in Syria, and air power is losing its effectiveness as rebel forces get better-armed and down planes;

endgame in Syria approaching, with hopes for a broad transitional government, supported by both Arab League and Organization for Islamic Cooperation

Despite all that, though, I still firmly believe in the need for Bashar al-Assad and his regime to go. There is simply no feasible or acceptable scenario whereby he and his party can continue their decades-old, repressive, totalitarian rule.

Bashar may be secular but, like his late Iraqi counterpart Saddam Hussein, he is an equal opportunities oppressor, and the rich history of coexistence in both countries was not created by the Ba'ath parties. Indeed, my mother's inclusive childhood predates the Assad dynasty.

If a post-Assad Syria is to avoid the abyss of civil war, under no circumstances should minority rights be hindered. However, while it must be acknowledged that support for Assad is not limited to minorities, and opposition to him does not come solely from the Sunni Muslim majority, there are those who resent what they see as minorities' complicity or silence regarding his crackdown.

At the same time, one cannot ensure minority rights by repressing the majority (as has happened to Syria's Sunnis) – that, too, is a sure way to civil war. So it is incumbent on the opposition to reassure the minorities, and incumbent on minorities to stand with their revolutionary compatriots. Basically, the rights of all should be considered, respected, and treated as equal.

Reaching an agreement involves imperatively Turkey, the Gulf States and the Arab League aligned on a common position. It is only this condition that will succeed in rallying all factions of the Syrian opposition - suspicious of the intentions that could hide behind one-sided support - and to approach the positions of minorities in Syria, which cannot be excluded from this process. This could help put pressure on the Security Council for its approval and trigger a transition process in Syria. It will not be easy to agree on a post-Assad scenario, but no other alternative is more promising for Syria and the region.

"...in the morality play here - moving arms to help kill versus standing by watching a dictator kill his own people - is really no choice at all.."

after Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya, you'd have to be more than a few bricks short of a load to support this latest USRAELI project, which of course also leads directly to an attack upon Iran for a fictitious nuclear bomb program and eventual confrontations with Russia and China. Don't fall for it Canucklheads...

Image: Libyan Mahdi al-Harati of the US State Department, United Nations, and the UK Home Office (page 5, .pdf)-listed terrorist organization, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), addressing fellow terrorists in Syria. Harati is now commanding a Libyan brigade operating inside of Syria attempting to destroy the Syrian government and subjugate the Syrian population. Traditionally, this is known as "foreign invasion."

Tony Cartalucci wrote:

Syria Is Suffering a Foreign Invasion, not a Revolution.

To reach Syria, Libyan fighters must cross the Mediterranean Sea and enter via Turkey, or cross Egypt, Israel, and enter via Jordan. The government of Syria has threatened Libya in no conceivable manner, making Libya's campaign an intolerable act of military aggression. Worst of all, the NATO-installed government in Tripoli has officially approved of supporting military operations in distant Syria. ...

To say that Libya's LIFG is "sympathetic to Al Qaeda" would, however, be misleading. It is Al Qaeda.

"The Canadian government is channelling $2 Million for medical supplies through a little known Syrian-Canadian group because it specifically wants the equipment to reach Syrian rebels, Postmedia has learned. This represents the first time Canada has provided direct material assistance to opposition forces..."

"Turkish protesters have held a demonstration in the southern province of Hatay near the Syrian border to show their support for the Syrian government. Last month a member of Turkey's parliament said that the Hatay province has become a hub for swarms of CIA and Mossad spies infiltrating into Syria freely..."

"The only path to peace in Syria is a ceasefire, yet a proxy war backed by outside groups is holding both the Syrian government and the opposition hostage, Syrian political activist Abdul-Aziz-Al-Khair says. Khair has been an opposition supporter for over a decade.."

Here in Quebec, the intellectua lDevoir newspaper feeds its readers with Agence France Press which get its reports from the so-called Syrian Observatory of Human Rights almost exclusively. Left-wing Quebecers when they're not in the streets with red squares and pots and pans generally support humanitarian regime change, like Kosovo or Libya or Syria.

Hey Rikardo - yeah well 'garbage in - garbage out'. Things are pretty dismal in Canadian media on Syria generally - even Rabble.ca SOHR is a very popular source for obvious reasons. Here's some additional info on them that may be of interest...

"Two conflicting narratives have developed to explain the country's recent violence. On one side, Western and Gulf policymakers and media have portrayed the uprising as spontaneous and peaceful, and the Syrian government as a ruthless and indiscriminate murderer of its civilians.

Other Arab governments, along with independent media and analysts, assert that the government is fending off terrorists armed and funded from abroad.

As time passes, the details emerging of the situation unfortunately confirm the latter..."

Left-wing Quebecers when they're not in the streets with red squares and pots and pans generally support humanitarian regime change, like Kosovo or Libya or Syria.

Those were not humanitarian regime changes. That was the Gladio Gang installing their dope dealing, war criminals and murdering mafia friends in Kosovo, and aiding and abetting Al Qa'eda terrorists to takeover Libya and now Syria. And militant Islam is the biggest threat to women's rights in those countries. This is what the NATO spring is all about achieving - cutting whole countries in half along gender lines and destroying any hope for democracy. It's what the motherfuckers do.

Talk about garbage. This bombing was aimed at a meeting of army generals nearby. Its purpose was to attack the generals but also show that the rebels can strike anywhere, even in a fortified area where Syria's top generals hold their meetings.

Of course we could always take the dunce James Corbett's (on the ground, live from his apartment in Japan!) view as gospel:

"head scratching... goes against their own interests... hard to know what to make of this... I guess... I guess"

How compelling.

Just because some dork has a $20 webcam, that doesn't make him a "reporter."

the foreign backed 'rebels' have vowed to murder Syrian officials and public servants, while Qatar has offered huge bribes to defecting officials...yet the majority of Syrians still support the government over the West and their FSA-Al Qaeda mercenaries.

"Military action in Syria will lead to catastrophe, Russia's Foreign Minister has said. Russia opposes US demands for a no-fly zone over Syria, he asaid, adding that the solution to the ongoing conflict is the Geneva Accord peace plan..."

Syria Rebels Warn They Will Turn To Al Qaeda if West Fails Them (and vid)

"The US spy chief has admitted that Al Qaeda might be behind recent suicide bombings in Syria. While rebels threaten they will have to make an alliance with Jihadists if they don't see more help from the West.."

"President Obama's recent statement about a chemical weapons' 'red-line' is just the West's pretext for intervention, Syria's Deputy PM has said, also stating that Bashar Assad's resignation is discussable but cannot be a precondition for talks.."

"The Western powers, the US and Great Britiain among others, are determined to essentially bring down the Assad regime. And not being able to do it through the UN, they do it surreptitiously by aiding the rebel forces adn this has been going on for a very long time.."

"These armed opposition groups are not interested in negotiating with the Syrian government. Neither are the backers of these armed opposition groups, which are the White House as well as Downing Street in London..."

"Clashes have erupted in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli in defiance of a ceasefire, bringing the death toll to 12. Skirmishes between pro and anti-Damascus fighters in Tripoli have heightened fears the Syrian conflict will engulf its neighbor..."

"Since the onset of the foreign-backed insurgency in Syria, Turkey has actively played the CIA assigned role of arming, funding and supporting the anti-Syrian terrorists." Discussion with Webster Tarpley and other activists.

Image: Must be seen to believe - screenshot of FP's article literally titled, "Two Cheers for Syrian Islamists." The writer, Gary Gambill, comes from the Middle East Forum which regular features the warmongering rants of Neo-Cons like Daniel Pipes and Islamophobia-propagandist Robert Spencer. ....Gambill continues his "two cheers" for terrorism in perhaps the most perverse statement found to-date in the Western press on the subject:

"Islamists -- many of them hardened by years of fighting U.S. forces in Iraq -- are simply more effective fighters than their secular counterparts. Assad has had extraordinary difficulty countering tactics perfected by his former jihadist allies, particularly suicide bombings and roadside bombs."

Gambill is gushingly praising men who have killed Western troops, admiring their prowess on the battlefield through their use of indiscriminate terrorist tactics which have killed and maimed tens of thousands of civilians across the Arab World.

"An estimated 12,000 people have spent 2 weeks blockaded in the Christian town of Rableh, Syria, near Homs. 'We have organized ourselves so we can stand by each other and we are sharing everything we have so we can survive. We need all the help we can get. Please help us,' a local priest told the Caritas, a Lebanon-based Catholic humanitarian organization..."

"Anybody who has studied how the US and NATO worked to topple the Jamahiriya in Libya knows that the US has tried to replicate the same regime-change mechanism in Syria. The function of mulitlateral contact groups supporting proxy opposition has been a key to this process.

What most people do not know is that America's contact group industry started in Somalia. Somalia's status as a divided, lawless and unstable state has been the model for the new divided and lawless Libya and what the US sees in the cards for a Syria plagued with civil war.."

France Tells Syrian Opposition to Form Government, Pledges to Recognize It (and vid)

"French President Francois Hollande has called on the Syrian opposition to form a provisional government, saying his country will recognize it as legitimate. Brian Becker, director of the ANSWER anti-war coalition, told RT that Western states are pushing forward the idea of a proxy government as part of their colonial agenda in the Middle East. And such a move would lay a strong basis for a full-scale military intervention, he added..."

"Journalist taken prisoner by the Free Syrian Army responds to questions.."

Journalist of the privately-owned Al Ekhbariya TV channel, Yara Saleh was taken prisoner with her team by the Free Syrian Army. She was spared and held hostage while a large mobilization in Europe put pressure on the French President to order his FSA friends to release her. Rescued in the end by the Syrian national army, she agreed to respond to the questions of Voltaire Network.

They were misled by western propaganda. Those Syrians will be weary of FSA foreign mercenaries and thugs for hire from now on.

NATO's Pan Arab terrorist blitzkrieg. Libyan militants have been confirmed to be leading entire brigades of foreign fighters inside Syria. With the US now openly arming and supporting and literally 'cheering' Al Qaeda in Syria, it is clear that the 'War on Terror' is an unprecedented geopolitical fraud.."

There can not be all out civil war in Syria unless the majority of Syrians want it.

Is that like when a majority of Afghans wanted civil war from 1992 to 1996 when Gladio allies turned their backs on the carnage in that country while continuing to shovell money and weapons to drug barons and warlords?

Is it like when Vietnamese wanted "civil war" and freedom from "communist oppression"?

Do Americans ever learn or are they all sponges for the pro war propaganda?

You're actually refusing to believe a U.S. client state's own poll revealing the majority of Syrian opinions. It's unAmerican to disbelieve the imperialist POV, Bec. You're a disgrace to the flag. Love it or leave it.

There can not be all out civil war in Syria unless the majority of Syrians want it.

Are you saying that the majority of Koreans, Spaniards and US citizens wanted their respective civil wars? (I'm sure there are numerous other examples as well as Afghanistan.)

The Sons of Liberty were terrorists. The country was born of terrorism. It's what they do. It's a theme that they've exported to other countries where capitalist dogs are looking to cock their hind legs up.

"Where there is confusion there is profit." ~ unknown

Quote:

The enormous gap between what US leaders do in the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments of the dominant political mythology. " ~ Michael Parenti

Fidel your a real block head sometimes... I belive most Syrians support thier government, that is why Assad stays in power for fucks sake. What I'm saying is "There is no way a outside mercenary force of international jihadist could defeat the entire nation of Syria on thier own without the Syrian people's help or indifference".

So you're saying these terrorists marauding in over Syrian borders could carry on for quite a while as long as Gladio support continues? Using prisoners as suicide bombers is a war crime. I guess they don't teach the rules to their Qa'eda mercenaries or scum of the earth for hire in general.

I think he has a point. Despite all that has been thrown at it, Syria is hanging together. And I think it is because most Syrians know that if the multi-ethnic alchemy of their state shatters all hell will fall upon their heads. And they all know what happened to Libya...

I think what he means is that it would happen faster with help from the luftwaffe, like they did when perpetrating Libyan 9/11 complete with Al Qa'eda ground troops. They'll continue funding and arming terrorists in the mean time. The war crimes and medieval siege of Syria will continue unabated. It's a new dark ages.

I think he has a point. Despite all that has been thrown at it, Syria is hanging together. And I think it is because most Syrians know that if the multi-ethnic alchemy of their state shatters all hell will fall upon their heads. And they all know what happened to Libya...

Not this...

Fidel wrote:

I think what he means is that it would happen faster with help from the luftwaffe, like they did when perpetrating Libyan 9/11 complete with Al Qa'eda ground troops. They'll continue funding and arming terrorists in the mean time. The war crimes and medieval siege of Syria will continue unabated. It's a new dark ages.

As much as Assad is a dictator I do not want to see Syria fall to a bunch of Sunni hardliners and I suspect most Syrians feel the same way. It’s kind of like here in the USA with the political and economic change that is needed; nobody really want s to go through what it would really take to do such a thing because they are uncertain of the outcome. So you get what we have now…

In all honesty I really can’t say for sure what the Syrians want; the only Arabs from the Middle East I get to talk to this about are Lebanese and they tend to think it’s more a fight between Shia and Sunni branches of Islam than political ideologies. That’s their take on this anyways, who an I to say they are wrong.

Man it's hard to disentangle all that gets said about Syria. At least (and it's not much), the Devoir used to note when information was coming from FSA and Observatory sources so you could discount it right off, but that meant the stories simply evaporated. The Global Research TV posting is useful though. The whole "red line" rhetoric seems to date back to the Syrian government's declaration that it would never use chemical weapons against its own population (because they were only for repelling outside invaders). This was immediately twisted around and referred to as "Syria's threat to use chemical weapons if invaded." I have written repeatedly to newspapers to correct their stories, but of course they have yet to print anything, let alone clean up their act. Big surprise.

I have written repeatedly to newspapers to correct their stories, but of course they have yet to print anything, let alone clean up their act. Big surprise.

It's supposed to be a war crime since Nuremberg to broadcast pro war propaganda. Our newspapers and TV stations are mostly all owned and or controlled by those whose interests are furthered by the neoliberal military agenda, so I guess they are immune from prosecution for the time being.

Meanwhile, the Seattle Times reports that the UK is sending $5 million of financial assistance to the Free Syrian Army. In addition, the CIA has smuggled 14 stinger missiles to Syrian rebels, according to the UK Mirror. Whether these resources are making their way into the hands of Al Qaeda remains to be seen.

Imagine, for a moment, that Afghan and Syrian mullahs, Russian Tsars and wacky George in England had armed confederate soldiers in the southern U.S. with the latest weaponry. In case of 1980's Afghanistan, it was billions of dollars and weaponry funelled to the most extreme right wing sectarian groups and drug barons.

Every other country makes Stinger equivalents of the shoulder launch or air-to-air type. That one looks like the same heat seeking variety but mounted on the tail wing of an aircraft. Details, details.

And the South could have won the war at any time and even late in the war at key times according to various scholarly American opinions. The north enjoyed a manufacturing advantage among other things. Imagine that the north's manufacturing advantage was cancelled with imported weaponry to aid the South and mercenaries for hire from anywhere, like Mexico, Central America and beyond. What was a terrible civil war could have been made worse and results tilted in favour of the south. Easily.

Your countrymen and others aided and abetted the equaivalent of southern confederates and right wing fundamentalists in 1980's Afghanistan, and then funded and armed them directly during the civil war from 1992 to 1996.

They were moderate Muslims in 1990's Bosnia, but the Clinton regime helped to change all that by creating a militant Islamic base in that country according to Republican Senate Committee reports which received no mention whatsoever in the 9/11 Commission cover-up among other sordid details of U.S. involvement with terrorists leading up to the post-2001 phony global war on terror.

ID fail for you Fidel, that's a Sidewinder missle... not a Stinger. They are mounted on aircraft (like here) or air defence vehicals. Look at how big it is compared to the man sanding next to it. How on earth could you launch that off your shoulder?

Here's a stinger missle...

Big difference wouldn't you say?

Sending or smuggling stinger missiles into Syria would be a serious escalation on thepart of the USA. Despite what I know you’re going to say I doubt they will do it. So far all the Syrian aircraft I’ve seen shot down, one jet and a helicopter, were brought down by heavy machinegun fire. The jet was hit as it was taking off from an air field and the helicopter was making strafing runs. Both were at low altitudes and well within machinegun range.

Basically, a bunch of neo-cons from the Brookings Institute, The Saban Center for Middle East Policy and the American Enterprise Institute role-played as the U.S., Turkey and Saudi Arabia and even they didn't want to get involved in Syria.